Fiber-reinforced plastics, which include primarily fiber-reinforced polymers, glass-fiber-reinforced plastics (GFRP) and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP), are becoming ever more important as replacements for conventional structural materials composed of metals such as steel or aluminum. Here, fiber-reinforced plastics offer good strength and rigidity with a simultaneously low weight. The use thereof is thus of particular interest in the automotive sector, in wind turbines and in particular in aeronautical engineering, where it is for example possible for profiles composed of fiber-reinforced plastic to be used as ribs in passenger aircraft.
The production of such profiles constitutes a challenge, in particular in the case of relatively complex geometries such as are often required in aeronautical engineering. In the case of a high level of geometric complexity, manufacturing is performed substantially manually, which entails high outlay.
There are however also approaches for automated production of profiles from fiber-reinforced plastic. Here, in general, an apparatus for the automated production of preforms is tailored specifically to a certain geometry of the profile. It is thus conventional, in the case of a desired longitudinal curvature of the profile, for all processing steps to be configured for that radius of curvature. Highly cumbersome conversion is then necessary for the production of a profile with a different radius of curvature.
The prior art, and specifically DE 10 2010 014 704 A1, from which the present disclosure proceeds, has disclosed an apparatus for the continuous production of preforms from fiber-reinforced plastic. Here, an individual profile—the preform, which may also be referred to as sub-preform—is produced by deformation from a coiled semifinished part, which individual profile is fixed by way of the heating of a binding agent. Here, the binding agent may basically already be present in the semifinished part—such a semifinished part is then referred to as a prepreg—or may be applied to the semifinished part within the apparatus. Several such individual profiles may then be assembled to form an overall profile, which is also referred to as final preform.
The apparatus known from the prior art separates the step of transverse deformation from that of longitudinal deformation. In this way, an adaptation of the radius of the longitudinal deformation is possible which does not necessitate conversion of the prior processing steps.
A disadvantage of an apparatus of said type is however that the increase in flexibility with regard to the geometry of producible profiles is small.